Vegan Success Stories: How Travel Made Me Vegan

At the end of 2015, I was helping my mum pluck pheasants for dinner whilst bragging about how I'd eaten kangaroo in Australia. I loved meat and I loved dairy even more (especially cheese). I wore leather boots and slathered on makeup products that were tested on animals. Other than having an undying love for foxes I didn't really give animals a second thought. But by the end of 2017, I'd been vegetarian for six months and vegan for three. So what happened? How did I go vegan? Depending on your outlook, you can blame or thank TRAVEL.

But how did travel make me vegan? I've been travelling the world ever since I graduated from university (in 2013). Travel has helped me work out what I want to do with my life (not work on someone else's dreams) and taught me so much more than my 'first class education' ever did. But it wasn't until I'd been travelling for four years that I started to think about veganism, and this is how:

My Vegan Story

Vietnam - what's the difference between a pig and a dog - March 2016

Vietnam was the first time I saw with my own eyes how livestock is treated: In Hanoi, I saw four pigs on the front of a motorbike, they were alive and tied together tightly. My initial thought was "wow that's so mean", followed by "but wait, they do mean stuff like this in the West all the time, you just never think about it".

Later that day, I went to a market and saw lots of livestock held in tiny, dirty cages. Chickens, ducks fish, crabs, eels etc. They all looked miserable:

I wandered down one row and came face to face with a whole pig's head. The same stall also had snouts, hooves and tongues - which, incidentally, look like giant human tongues.In the west, or at least in the UK, you never really see meat that looks like the animal it once was. I had seen it in places like Spain, Thailand and Greece, but this time it felt much more visceral, no doubt following up from seeing the live pigs a few hours earlier:

But the worst part, by a mile, was seeing a dead dog being sold as meat. It felt like something out of a horror movie to me, like I was seeing a baby being sold as meat.But why did I feel this way about a dead dog but not about a dead pig? I love pigs! I know it sounds dumb, but I never really properly connected pigs with pork. It's actually not that dumb, it's a form of brainwashing:

We are bombarded with advertising and social conditioning to make us forget the connection between what's on our plates.

Like, I've seen dairy cows irl and they ain't laughing... but more on that in a minute

I didn't take a photo of the dead dog, but I did take a photo of the beautiful fruit and vegetables right next to it:

As you can see, they're all different colours and shapes - there's such variety! And looking at these made me feel happy, whereas looking at the pork was kind of grossing me out, and the dog was traumatising me. which really got me thinking about the differences between eating meat and eating vegetables.But before I'd had time to think about it properly, I was eating fish, beef, crab and (of course) pork for lunch. It was one of the most delicious lunches I've ever had and animal right's went right back to the back of my mind.

Cambodia - seeds of veganism - April 2016

It wasn't until I was in Cambodia that animal rights came up again. I'd had a perfect day: I'd seen the sunrise at Angkor Wat, watched Game of Thrones and for the first time in months I'd had Marmite (best food ever).

Whilst doing a celebratory scroll through Facebook, I chanced upon a post:

Usually, this would be something I'd scroll straight past with a roll of my eyes (whilst eating a bacon sandwich). But, due to my newfound zen-ness (thanks to Angkor Wat, GOT and Marmite), I clicked on it.It's an extremely well-written post - Lauren points out the facts, without making you feel personally attacked. It wasn't until I'd reached the end that I realised that there was nothing I could say to justify my carnivorous ways. Things that had put me off being vegan in the past (it's not healthy, it's restrictive, animals don't suffer that much), just weren't true - in fact, the opposites were true. Here are some points that really made an impact on me:

Most dairy cows don't make it to the age of 5 - even though cows can live to be 20 or older

Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions - that's more than the exhaust from all transmission combined

We are overfishing and could see fish-less oceans by 2048

There was so much more, it's such a great post and I really recommend reading it. It makes so much sense without attacking anyone and I am so thankful to Lauren for opening my eyes.But whilst the seeds of veganism had been sowed, my vegan story wasn't over:

Thailand - is vegan travel possible - April 2016

From that point on, and with only one week left in South East Asia, I vowed to become vegan. It was rough. Firstly, there was the bus ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok, a bus ride that's rough in general, but is even rougher when you're given lunch by the bus company and it turns out to be beef and rice. (I ended up eating around the beef and giving that to my neighbour and then being hungry, lol.) Then, in Bangkok, I walked into a supermarket, and it was the first time I'd done so since deciding to become vegan.It was horribly overwhelming.

I was looking at the hundreds of meat and dairy products and feeling awful. For the first time, I was looking at them as animals, not as food. I felt really sorry for the animals.But no way near as sorry as I felt for myself - what was I going to eat? Had I just severely restricted myself?

And it became worse, steering away from the meat and dairy isles, I still couldn't eat most of the foods: biscuits, chocolates, pastries, even certain types of bread... Avoiding meat was one thing, but butter and milk seemed to be in everything!

Luckily, this overwhelming shopping experience was counter-balanced by one of the best meals I've ever had in my life - at May Veggie Home. May Veggie Home (despite its slightly misleading name) is a 100% vegan restaurant in Bangkok. I tried a tofu dish there and it was incredible. Up until that point I'd always hated tofu, but it turns out I'd never had it cooked in a nice way. I suddenly realised that instead of focussing on the foods I'd be giving up, I could focus on all the new foods coming into my life: starting with tofu. And it wasn't just tofu. As a meat-eater, I could eat beans, lentils, fruits, nuts, vegetables, soy - but of course, I rarely if ever did. For the three months, I was in South East Asia, I had a buffet-type breakfast every day. Although I could have chosen anything I wanted, I always filled up on bacon and eggs and never tried anything else - ironically as a meat-eater I was restricted by availability and habit. Nowadays, as a travelling vegan, I always find something different at those buffet-type breakfasts, because the vegan options vary depending on where you are. You can have eggs and bacon anywhere on the planet - it's always the same, trust me, but working out what you can eat at the buffet breakfast and finding something new every time, for me, is more exciting. Be it hummus in Dubai, or Marmite in Cambodia, winter berries in Sweden or falafel in Canada. Another fear that May Veggie cleared up for me was FOMO - isn't eating foods a big part of travelling the world? How would I have an authentic experience without being able to try the local dishes? At May Veggie my meal was Thai and vegan. Sure I'd never try Guinea Pig in Peru or Balut in the Philippines, but there would be exciting alternatives to discover (and I'd be less likely to get food poisoning).

Italy - two steps backwards on my vegan story - May 2016

Although I managed to grab a vegan sandwich at the airport in Rome, that was the only day that month that I was vegan. My new found veganism went completely out of the window and I wasn't even a vegetarian.

In Italy, I was staying with friends, as a guest, and as I had been a meat-loving guest when I stayed with them before, I didn't feel like I could roll up and say I was suddenly a vegan, especially as it was still so new for me.

I justified it to myself by saying that I was having a proper goodbye to meat and dairy; that I'd spend the month researching what I would eat for the rest of my life; and decided that Italian's (who love their food) were probably kind to their livestock... (Incidentally, this isn't actually true, Italians have some very mean livestock practices, for example, their cruel buffalo mozzarella farms.)

But I was a good guest, ate a lot of meat, dairy and eggs; felt bad and researched being vegan.Right at the end of my stay, I watched the trailer for Earthlings:

Just the trailer alone made me feel so awful, I immediately stopped eating meat, which coincided with the end of my stay.

Hungary - Vegetarian fo lyf - June 2016

Then I went to Budapest where I rented an Airbnb for a month, and as I wasn't a guest it was easy to control what I ate. I found it very easy to stay vegetarian, but couldn't get going with being vegan. I couldn't find chickpeas, I tried soy milk but hated it and, worst of all, I ate some tofu raw thinking it would be like cheese - it really wasn't. Don't ever do that. Pleeaasse. Anyway, I gave up pretty quickly and decided to be a vegetarian first. [Read more: best and worst countries for travelling vegan]And I was doing pretty well without meat and fish until one drunken evening nothing was available apart from a meat kebab (thanks Pizza King).

So the next day I made myself watch earthlings, and caught it all on camera, so you can see the moment I stopped eating meat forever:

Watching Earthlings isn't nice, or pretty, I cried my face off (as you can see) and for three days I was so depressed thinking about all the damage I'd done eating meat. The sounds of the animals being tortured, the images of the cow getting its throat slit and the chicks getting their beaks cut off...

It's so easy to eat meat and not think about where it's come from (like I did for years) and it's not really our faults. The meat and dairy industries are multi-billion pound industries and they pump a lot of money into marketing and making us forget where our food comes from. Animals are seen as commodities and it's cheaper to keep commodities in cruel conditions. Case in point: many slaughterhouses and dairy farms won't let you go in and check them out, but picking fruits and vegetables are seen as a fun family activity (picking strawberries, pumpkins etc).

Earthlings is pretty American-centric and animal right's laws do vary from country to country, so some places are worse than others. For me, it's easier to avoid meat altogether than check the rules of each country before I go there... On a similar note, when it comes to organic farming and farms where the animals supposedly have a good life, of these I'm always wary (see below), and find it's easier to avoid it rather than search for the organic sticker and hope the standards match my own.

Anyway, I don't really recommend that you watch Earthlings if you're reading this post chances are you're already thinking about veganism in some shape or form. If you want a milder version that gives you all the facts in a nice way, try Carnage swallowing the past - Carnage goes for humour, Earthlings goes for visceral. But, if like me, you needed a kick in the face, opt for Earthlings.

Earthlings made me a vegetarian for life. But when it came to being vegan, it didn't really convince me, it's very much focussed on using animals for sport, medical testing, leather and meat rather than dairy and eggs. I still wasn't ready to take the leap.

Slovenia - cow friendly organic farming - July 2016

Then I went to Slovenia. I visited a 'cow friendly', organic, milking place. I'd been told that this place was one of the good ones: the cows had a massage machine and were milked when they liked. I couldn't wait to see it and be able to eat cheese in peace, knowing that the cows were happy. But when I arrived all I saw was:

The cows stood ankle deep in their own excrement

With no room for them to sit down

They weren't out in a field, they were in a barn

A couple of cows had injuries - including one with an eyeball coming out of its socket looking like Glen from the Walking Dead.

But the worst was seeing a newborn calf, dead, lying feet from its poor mother. You can argue that cows don't have feelings until the cows come home (pun intended), but watching a cow staring at its dead baby was heart-wrenching. The cow didn't take its eyes off the baby and was pinning for it. I saw first-hand that I wouldn't be able to trust 'organic' or 'cow-friendly' labels ever again. Please note, I still believe that you can keep cows, chickens etc in a nice way, e.g. my uncle has chickens that he is very nice to, I just would never trust it unless I'd visited the actual place myself, which I can't do because I travel all the time. I vowed once I settled down I'd find a good dairy and egg farmer and only eat those, but it's been two years now, as a travelling vegan, and I no longer want dairy (yes, even cheese!!) so it's kind of a moot point (moo point)?It took a while to get to that stage though, and even with my new 'no milk unless I've seen the farm rule', it didn't take me long to break it:

The UK - vegan relapsing + skin issues - August 2016

Though I managed to conquer Italy (Venice) the second time around by being vegan, I was admittedly only there for two days.

The next big challenge was, surprisingly, the UK.

As a nation who loves Baked Beans, hummus, Marmite and porridge (not all at once), and as a nation where I can read all the ingredients/ communicate pretty well in restaurants, I thought being a vegan in the UK would be a walk in the park.

But it wasn't - a large part of the home comforts I get from going back to the UK twice a year revolve around food.

My mum and her boyfriend John tried very nicely to cater to my vegan ways. My mum and I were pescatarians until I was 11, and she is amazing at cooking lentils, beans, nuts and vegetables. But she also has great taste in cheese and makes the best chocolate cookies.. so it wasn't long before I went back to my non-vegan ways - I was still a vegetarian but veganism still wasn't sticking!Then I went to the doctor to try and get rid of my acne. I'd tried all the usual creams and face-washes, all the over-the-counter products. The doctors had given me antibiotics that did nothing and they wanted to try me on Accutane. I didn't want to try Accutane though, it's really severe and a big side-effect of it is depression. I decided to try going without dairy for three months to see if it made any difference to my skin (and with the added advantage that I'd be back on the vegan track).

Germany - vegan success stories - October 2016

Germany was, surprisingly, the easiest country to be vegan in for me up at that point.

I know traditionally Germany and meat go hand in hand - they are the country that has meat vending machines after all. But, Berlin is the vegan capital of Europe and because most Germans are very eco-friendly and animal-friendly it's actually super easy to find animal-friendly products.Read more: things you surprisingly CAN eat as a vegan

Of course, it helped a bit that like in England, I could read all the ingredients (because I spreche Deutsch).

Being able to cater to myself for the whole month helped too (the first two weeks thanks to staying at my fiance's family and the second two because of house sitting). This made sure that I could eat fully vegan and it went really well. I discovered some new recipes and didn't feel restricted.[Side note: read more about how Why House Sitting Can Be The Best Solution for Vegan Travel] And another miracle happened: my skin cleared up! Although the acne didn't completely disappear, it improved by about 70% within a month and my skin no longer felt tight or greasy.

Back to Italy - final vegan touches - November 2016

I headed back to Italy to house sit, but for the first week, I was a guest of the people I'd been guests of back in June. It was a lot harder to steer clear of dairy here. Firstly I was guests, and I felt like a really bad guest not being able to eat certain things. Secondly, this was Italy and Italy like to put cheese on everything.

Once the house sat began and it was just us, it was a lot easier to be fully vegan again. I still had that final hurdle to get over: whilst Earthlings had put me off meat for life, having better skin wasn't enough to stop me from the odd cheat day (especially when it came to my all time favourite, cheese). Then along came Erin:I didn't need much of a push, but watching this 5 minute video was all I needed to convince me never to eat dairy again. Did you know about the pus in milk? PUS. IN. MILK. The point that hit me the most was this: eating dairy is much crueler than eating meat. If you eat meat, the animals will die in a horrible way and be eaten, but then it's over, no more suffering. If you eat dairy or eggs, the animals are tortured for years on end, before still being killed in a horrible way and eaten - because dairy cows end up as beef. I think vegetarianism is a great first step to becoming vegan, and certainly helped me make the transition, but it really bugs me when vegetarians say they love animals - eating dairy is much crueler than eating meat. Initially, I found Italy a bit of a nightmare to be vegan in, but after spending three months there on five different corners (Venice, East Coast, Rome, Naples, Sicily), I was finally able to write this guide: How to be vegan in Italy the first of many vegan success stories.

Summary: how travel made me vegan

Like most things, my vegan story wasn't very straight forward - I had lots of ups and downs but essentially this is how it happened:1. Seeing how livestock is really treated in Vietnam and reading the blog JustinPlusLauren made me strongly want to become a vegan 2. Watching Earthlings put me off meat for life3. Understanding that eating dairy is even crueler than eating meat thanks to YouTuber Erin Janus and seeing 'organic' cows in Slovenia put me off dairy for life4. Essentially there are now hundreds of reasons I'm a travelling vegan: for the animals, for my own health and for the environment.

Maybe 'travel made me vegan' is a bit of a stretch, maybe 'spending too much time on the internet made me vegan' would be more accurate but hey, that wouldn't be such a catchy title right?

Finally, what if I was stuck on a desert island? If there was no other choice, would I eat meat then?In the unlikely event that this would happen (and there were no coconuts or plants or anything), sure I'd probably kill and eat a pig - I'd probably kill and eat you... But I think this is a more important question:If you were in a supermarket and had thousands and thousands of options, if you had plenty of choice - would you still eat cruel foods?